Men are trash

Men are trash, often written on social media as #MenAreTrash, is a feminist slogan and one of the most common examples of casual misandry. Feminists defend the phrase by claiming that it does not refer to all men, but highlights the problems that many men have which can stem from toxic masculinity. This is problematic in that it genders phenomena like partner violence and sexual assault, which have actually been recorded to be largely gender neutral in prevalence. Additionally, it implies blame on the majority of men, who do not contribute to so-called "trash" behavior, for the actions of the few men who do. Finally, even if one assumes the feminist conjectures of masculinity are true, the rhetoric of the English language generally asserts that a subject without a modifier is mutually all-encompassing. For instance, if someone was to say "My friends are tall", the average person does not envision some tall people and some short people, or even a few short people and a lot of tall people. Rather, the average person envisions a group of exclusively tall people. Similarly, "men are trash" implies a monolith of "trash" men, not a group of men in which only some are "trash".

Feminists suggest that decent men should understand that the phrase does not apply to them. However, this fails to take into account the struggles that some people have in deciphering language. In particular, it unfairly targets young boys, men with mental disabilities such as autism, and men whose native language is not English, all of which are groups that are less likely to pick up on lingual nuance (even if we pretend that it somehow does exist in the phrase "men are trash").

Finally, though this is probably somewhat unintentional, usage of the word "trash" can potentially fuel notions of male disposability, since the word "trash" goes hand in hand with the idea that someone is expendable and inconsequential as an individual.